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Your Maple Leafs are coming home with a grasp on momentum in the 2013 Stanley Cup playoffs, and they’re ready to take you for a wild ride.

The Leafs, after an atrocious display in Game 1, answered the bell in hard-nosed fashion on Saturday night, beating the Boston Bruins 4-2 to even the best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal 1-1.

Randy Carlyle, with several lineup changes and line-mixing, came out the winner in a chess match with his counterpart, Bruins coach Claude Julien.

We’ve said it all along and will until the final puck is dropped: Your best players have to be your best players in the playoffs. There are third- and fourth-liners who will make crucial contributions.

Your stars, however, must be stars.

The Leafs got that before a capacity crowd of 17,565 at the TD Garden, as Joffrey Lupul scored two goals, James Reimer made 39 saves and Phil Kessel — yes, Phil Kessel — scored in the third period. So, too, did James van Riemsdyk on one of the prettier goals you’ll see, thanks to Mikhail Grabovski.

“You want your best players to be your best and lead, but it takes every guy in the playoffs, and that is why we were successful,” Lupul said. “From the defencemen blocking shots and getting pucks out and playing physical in front of our net to our forwards, lots of guys played really well and that is going to need to continue.

“The same as we felt after Game 1, we felt bad and felt we had to flush it. Right now, we feel great. Same thing, flush it. And we’re happy to be going home.”

Lupul once scored four goals in a playoff game for the Anaheim Ducks. What mattered at all on Saturday was the pair he put behind Tuukka Rask in the second period.

Lupul played on a line with Tyler Bozak and Matt Frattin, while Kessel skated with Nazem Kadri and Ryan Hamilton. Carlyle did all he could to get Kessel away from Zdeno Chara, and in the third period, the ploy reaped a reward.

Kadri sprung Kessel on a breakaway and the speedy winger beat Rask with a shot along the ice at 53 seconds of the third. It was the first time in 24 games, regular-season or playoffs, that Kessel scored an even-strength goal against the Bruins, and just the fourth overall.

“It has been a long time against these guys,” Kessel said. “It was nice to get one. I was happy.”

The Bruins answered when Johnny Boychuk scored on a point shot at 10:35, but the home side couldn’t get the best of Reimer, again before van Riemsdyk all but clinched it with just more than three minutes left.

The Leafs, to a man, were plenty more eager than they were in the series opener. They had poise, though it took a while to acquire it, and they won puck battles. They moved the puck a lot more sharply out of their own end. And they weren’t dreadfully outshot, as they fired 32 pucks at Rask.

On the blue line, the new pair of Jake Gardiner and Ryan O’Byrne made a contribution, even if Gardiner had to endure some first-period nerves.

Up front, Frattin and Ryan Hamilton played smart hockey.

Lupul put the Leafs ahead 2-1 at 11:56 of the second thanks to a fine play by Frattin, who burst around Dennis Seidenberg and centred to the veteran winger.

Nathan Horton gave the Bruins a 1-0 lead at 1:54 of the second period when a Milan Lucic rebound bounced off his skate, and then off Cody Franson, before crossing the goal line.

Lupul tied the game on a power play.

“The work ethic that was demonstrated by our group is a thing that we demanded, asked, kicked, coddled, massaged, whatever word you want to describe,” Carlyle said.

“There was doubt, and tonight we eliminated that doubt. When we play our game and skate off the puck and move it effectively, we can be a hockey club that can compete. That’s really the most satisfying, gratifying — we felt proud that we went out and did that.”

Several of the Leafs said they weren’t sure what to expect on Monday night at home for Game 3, given that they have not experienced a home playoff game at the Air Canada Centre. But they figured on it being a loud building.

“I’ve said all year we have the best fans in the NHL,” captain Dion Phaneuf said. “But we have lots of work to do yet.”

It has been awhile — just over nine years since the Leafs contested a post-season game at home.

Leafs bounce back against Bruins to level series

Your Maple Leafs are coming home with momentum, and they’re ready to take you for a wild ride.

The Leafs, after an atrocious display in Game 1, answered the bell in hard-nosed fashion on Saturday night, beating the Boston Bruins 4-2 to even this best-of-seven Eastern Conference quarterfinal series at 1-1.

Randy Carlyle could have coached himself into the ground with the lineup changes and line mixing he did both before and during the game, but instead came out the winner in a chess match with his counterpart, Bruins coach Claude Julien.